I'm no expert, but I don't think it's supposed to do that. The machine is running Debian 5. I tried both http:// and file:/// methods to access the repository. I'm certain that Redmine has sufficient credentials to read the repository.

Well, it is Ruby 1.8.7. However, I have no means of downgrading to Ruby 1.8.6. Are there plans to migrate to Ruby 1.8.7? I would hope so, because right now it's going to bite every user of Debian Lenny.